Over a period of years, former Fiat Chrysler executive Al Iacobelli and former UAW Vice President General Holiefield helped to save Chrysler and then stole millions intended for worker training, authorities say.
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Gifts ranged from paying off a top UAW official's mortgage to throwing a $30,000 party for one UAW official.

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Fiat Chrysler executives lavished more than $1.5 million in gifts and prohibited payments to UAW leaders over more than a six-year period, federal prosecutors charge.(Photo: Eric Seals, Detroit Free Press)Buy Photo

Editor's note: This story has been updated to include the UAW's response that secret payments offered by an FCA executive to union officials were rejected and never paid.

Over at least a six-year period, Fiat Chrysler executives lavished more than $1.5 million in gifts and prohibited payments to UAW leaders in what federal prosecutors say was an effort to give the automaker a better position at the bargaining table.

The gifts ranged from paying off a top UAW official's mortgage to throwing a $30,000 party for one UAW official that included $7,000 worth of cigars and $3,000 in specially labeled bottles of wine.

In nearly every instance, the money came through the UAW-Chrysler National Training Center (NTC) using money provided by FCA, according to federal documents. Federal prosecutors allege the gifts violated the federal Labor Management Relations Act and were intended to "obtain benefits, concessions and advantages for FCA in the negotiation, implementation and administration of the collective bargaining agreements between FCA and the UAW."

THe late UAW Vice President General Holiefield, who was the lead negotiator for Fiat Chrysler UAW workers was a prime beneficiary of prohibited payments from FCA executives, federal prosecutors say.
Eric Seals/Detroit Free Press(Photo: Eric Seals)

Among the incidents cited in federal documents:

In February 2010, an unidentified FCA executive gave a custom-made Terra Cielo Mare watch to the late UAW Vice President General Holiefield, who was the chief negotiator for UAW Fiat Chrysler workers until his 2014 retirement. It was accompanied by a handwritten note from the executive that stated: Dear General, I declared the goods at less than fifty bucks. That should remove any potential conflict. Best regards, and see you soon.” A check by the Free Press of prices of the Italian luxury watches on the Terra Cielo Mare website range from $1,164 for a “Fiat” to $13,441 for a "Toponi Officer Gold."

In 2011 and 2012, FCA Vice President Alphons Iacobelli and other FCA executives authorized and directed the expenditure of more than $435,000 to Wilson’s Diversified Products, owned and controlled by Holiefield and his girlfriend and later wife, Monica Morgan.

Between 2012 and June 2015, Iacobelli authorized the expenditure of more than $450,000 to pay for personal purchases made by Holiefield and other UAW officials on their NTC credit cards, including jewelry, furniture, electronics and designer clothing.

In June 2014, Iacobelli authorized the expenditure of $262,220 to pay off the mortgage on Holiefield and Morgan’s home in Harrison Township. The check was issued by the NTC using money provided by Fiat Chrysler.

In August 2014, Iacobelli authorized the expenditure of more $30,000 for an unnamed UAW official that included “ultra-premium” liquor, more than $7,000 worth of cigars and more than $3,000 worth of wine with custom labels honoring the UAW official.

In February and March of 2015, Iacobelli and other company officials, including an unnamed “senior manager” offered to pay $50,000 each to select UAW officials under the guise of bogus “settlement agreements.” The payments were to be confidential and the FCA would not pay the $50,000 “if it were unable to avoid public disclosure” of the arrangements.

On Feb. 18, 2015, the same FCA senior manager, at Iacobelli’s direction, sent an email to an unidentified UAW official offering the Fiat Chrysler would make lump sum payments of $50,000 to select senior UAW officials as a “one-time non-precedent setting” retirement offer. To ensure that rank-and-file workers weren't aware of the payments to their union leaders, the senior manager assured the UAW official, "My people will process the transactions to keep them out of the plants." Union officials say those proposed payments were never paid after being reviewed by legal counsel and rejected by union President Dennis Williams.